Alfoxton House

Alfoxton House, also known as Alfoxton Park or Alfoxden, was built as an 18th-century country house in Holford, Somerset, England, within the Quantock Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The present house was rebuilt in 1710 after the previous building was destroyed in a fire.[1]

Alfoxton House
Alfoxden Park (a 1920 book illustration)
Location within Somerset
General information
Town or cityHolford
CountryEngland
Coordinates51.1652°N 3.2201°W / 51.1652; -3.2201
Completed1710
ClientJohn St Albyn

History

The poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy lived at Alfoxton House between July 1797 and June 1798, during the time of their friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge.[2] Dorothy began her journals here in January 1798 but discontinued them 2 months later to recommence when the couple moved to the Lake District.[3] These were posthumously published as The Alfoxden Journal, 1798 and The Grasmere Journals, 1800-1803.

The building was refenestrated and re-roofed in the 19th century. It has been changed and extended significantly since the time of the Wordsworths to turn it into a country hotel. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.[3] During World War II it housed evacuees from Wellington House Preparatory School at Westgate-on-Sea in Kent.[4] After use as a country hotel followed by a period of disuse, the house was sold in January 2018.[5] It was again for sale (with 50 acres) in July 2018,[6] and in 2020 purchased for about £2 million by the Alfoxton Park Trust for use by the Triratna Buddhist Community.[7]

Building

Alfoxton House was built in the 18th century of rendered rubble stone, the main block being on a double-pile plan, i.e. two main rooms on each side of a central corridor. The house is two storeys high, with an attic that includes dormer windows. The frontage includes a central porch with columns, frieze and cornice in a Doric style. There is an extension to the left, originally an orangery, with a steep roof over a verandah. The wall includes the coat of arms of the St Albyn family who owned the house for many years.[3]

References
  1. "Alfoxton Park Hotel". Information Britain. Archived from the original on 1 May 2005. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  2. "Stringston". British History Online. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  3. "Alfoxton Park Hotel". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  4. Waite, Vincent (1964). Portrait of the Quantocks. London: Robert Hale. ISBN 0-7091-1158-4.
  5. Jones, Paul (5 January 2018). "Derelict Alfoxton Park, Somerset, former hotel and home of poet William Wordsworth, sold". Somerset County Gazette.
  6. https://www.christie.com/news-resources/press-releases/july-2018/historic-somerset-country-house-hotel-and-estate-f/
  7. Simpson, Craig (30 July 2020). "William Wordsworth's idyllic home to become Buddhist retreat". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
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